


anywhere away with you

by kissgirls



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Raydia, slight injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-19
Updated: 2018-12-19
Packaged: 2019-09-23 01:38:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17071016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kissgirls/pseuds/kissgirls
Summary: rayla's having a bad night.





	anywhere away with you

**Author's Note:**

> here's my gift to @hellyeahxadia on tumblr!!!! hope you enjoy it!!!!!!!

Claudia awakes to the melody of her ringtone, incessantly poking at her consciousness over and over until she has no choice but to open her eyes. Her phone screen is a small beacon of light in her dark room, where Rayla’s pretty smile and captivating eyes beam at her from under the contact name. Claudia swipes right over the call button without a second thought, already bringing the phone to her ear as she catches a glance at the time- 3:32 am.

“Rayla?” Her voice is heavy with sleep, slurring the syllables together more than she would have liked. “Rayla, it’s-”

Claudia pauses- a noise over the line stops her in her thoughts.

“Rayla? What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

“ _ Can you come get me? _ ”

Claudia doesn’t remember getting out of bed- all she knows is the cool feeling of the tiles under her feet as she slips out of her room. “I’m on my way. Where are you?”

There’s the sound of sniffling and muffled sobs over the line. “ _ I’m- I don’t know. I’m not far from Callum’s house, I think, but I don’t know how far I’ve walked, and I just-“ _

Rayla sucks in a heavy, pained breath over the line. Claudia’s already pulling on her second show and tiptoeing through the apartment to where her father’s car keys hand. Hearing Rayla like this makes her heart clench painfully.

“I’m on my way,” Claudia repeats. “See if you can send me your location, and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“Okay.”

Claudia slips out of the apartment with little more than a soft click of the door knob, dashing through the hall and down the apartment stairwell until she’s hit with the cold air of the night. When she slips into her father’s sleek, black car, her phone’s ringer goes off- Rayla’s location. Claudia plugs it into her phone and all but tears into the darkness of the night, illuminated only by dull streetlights and the headlights of the other passing cars.

 

 

She sees Rayla before she reaches her destination.

When she gets there, she barely remembers to put the car in park before flinging her out of the driver’s seat and rushing to Rayla’s side, because she looks… she doesn’t know what to think of it.

Rayla’s eyes are red and swollen, her cheeks glistening with tears under the dim light of the car’s headlights. Her hand is cradled to her chest carefully as if protecting it, and Claudia’s breath catches in her throat- it looks stained in red. 

Rayla presses herself into Claudia’s arms, and squeezes Claudia with one arm so tightly, Claudia finds it hard to breathe. Rayla doesn’t dissolve into sobs like Claudia half expects her to- she just hold onto Claudia like a lifeline, and Claudia holds her back just as tightly.

“What happened?” Claudia whispers into Rayla’s silver hair. Rayla’s face rests in the crook of Claudia’s neck, and her breath is warm and hot against her skin. Her cheeks are still wet with tears.

“My parents,” says Rayla, her voice muffled. “They’re- we got into a fight. And I didn’t want to wake you, so I tried going over to Callum’s, but he’s out of town for the weekend, and I didn’t know what else to do, and I cut my hand on a piece of glass-“

Claudia pushes Rayla back and grabs for her hand, inspecting the cut almost frantically. It wasn’t deep- just enough to bleed, but they needed to get it cleaned. Rayla sniffs, but doesn’t protest, and Claudia squeezes her wrist. “Let’s get you into the car and get this cut cleaned and treated, okay?”

Rayla nods once and follows Claudia into the car. As Claudia pulls the car away from the curb, one of Rayla’s hand slips into one of Claudia’s and laces their fingers together like twine. 

 

 

“Hold still.”

Rayla hisses as Claudia dabs the cut on her hand, trying to tug her hand out of Claudia’s on instinct. Claudia squeezes Rayla’s wrist in reassurance once, and tries to dab a little softer. 

“Sorry.”

Rayla shakes her head dismissively and shifts, repositioning herself on the bathroom toilet seat uncomfortably. “Wasn’t your fault. Just-“ she winces as Claudia picks out a piece of glass as quickly as she can with the tweezers she found in the first aid kit, “-hurts a little.”

“I bet,” Claudia replies. “Don’t worry, just need to make sure it’s clean before I bandage it up.”

Quiet settles over them like a fog, only interrupted by Rayla’s wincing and Claudia’s quiet reassurances and apologies. When Claudia’s checked the wound over a few dozen times, making sure everything looks clean, she unwraps the bandages from the kit and starts to wind it around Rayla’s hand tightly, when a hand covers her own softly. Rayla’s soft, lilac eyes meet Claudia’s.

“Thank you, Claudia,” she says in a near whisper. “I didn’t know- I was just-“

Rayla lets out a long, heavy sigh that sounds edged with tears. “My parents want me to move in with my Uncle Runaan. They- they don’t want to… to  _ deal _ with me anymore, I guess. They told me they love me but it was getting too hard for  _ them  _ to put up with my apparent ‘nasty attitude’. So they’re….,” Rayla sniffs, “They’re getting rid of me, I guess. So they no longer have to deal with a problem child anymore.”

Claudia bites her lip, tying off the bandage as tight as she can without hurting Rayla. Then, hesitantly, she puts the bandage wrap on the counter and rests her hands on the edge of the bathtub, trying to figure out the right words to say. Eventually, without any luck, she ends up saying, “that’s shitty.”

A sudden laugh seems to escape Rayla, but it’s bitter and ridden with sadness. “Yeah. Pretty shitty.” She leans back from where she sits on the toilet seat of Claudia’s bathroom against the back, looking bitter and ticked in a way that has Claudia longing to reach out to her and hold her tightly. “I can’t believe they’re sending me away. I’m going to be starting over all because  _ they _ don’t know how to parent correctly.”

Claudia’s heart twists. “I thought your Uncle lived here.”

Rayla rubs her eyes slowly. “No- no, he moved a few weeks ago. A few hours away from here.” She buries her head in her hands, and Claudia feels like doing the same. Instead, she places a hand on Rayla’s knee in what is meant to be a comforting matter, and rubs her thumb over the fabric of Rayla’s jeans. 

“Take me anywhere,” Rayla’s muffled voice sounds out from behind her hands. “Just- just take me  _ anywhere _ . Anywhere away from here. Let’s run away to California or something, just-“

Claudia grabs Rayla’s hand and pulls her close, hugging her tightly despite the awkward position they’re in to her chest, as if she can protect her. She whispers quiet assurances in Rayla’s ear as Rayla starts to fall apart, her chest spasming in an attempt to breathe. “Hey,” Claudia whispers. “It’s okay, I promise. We’ll figure it out. It’s only a few hours, okay? I can drive to you whenever.”

“But what if you  _ can’t _ ? It’s too much to drive back and forth over and over, and it’s- it’s not even just  _ that _ , my parents don’t even want me in the house anymore. How can I- how can I  _ live _ knowing that my parents are so done with me, they’ll ship me off wherever? I don’t want to deal with this, I’m so tired, Claudia-“

A sob tears out of her throat and Claudia holds her as if it’s her only purpose in the world. “It’ll be okay, Ray. I promise.”

Rayla shakes her head, Claudia can feel it from where Rayla’s nuzzled into her neck again, and she pushes Rayla back to cup her face.

“It’s going to be alright. I’m here for you, and I’m always going to be, okay?” Claudia moves her head back into Rayla’s vision when she tries to put her face back into her hands. “ _ Ray _ , I love you. It’s going to be okay.”

Rayla cries for a long, long time. Sometimes, she sniffs, and starts to wind down, only for her sobs to come back tenfold, and Claudia can hear Rayla’s throat starting to scratch the longer she cries. Claudia holds her tight the entire time, sometimes whispering assurances, sometimes kissing her cheeks and the side of her head. When Rayla finally calms down, and they just sit there, holding each other tight, Rayla adjusts her head on Claudia’s shoulder.

“Okay,” she whispers.

And that’s that.


End file.
